Violating Our Borders is a Crime

The issue of immigration is finally garnering more attention but, in my humble opinion, it is still not receiving as much attention as it should!

I am providing you with my most recent commentary for the Californians for Population Stabilization (CAPS) website that focuses on the importance of our nation’s borders, borders that have been ignored by millions of illegal aliens who ran those borders. We should not blame the aliens, however, but our own government!

My dad taught me that I would teach people how they should treat me by making clear what I was willing to accept!

When the President of the United States and high-ranking members of his cabinet argue that violating our borders is not a crime, a dangerous message is being sent!

When the President establishes official policies that causes the federal law enforcement agents whose mission is to secure our borders and enforce our nation’s immigration laws to not take illegal aliens into custody and not seek their removal (deportation) from the United States an even more dangerous message gets sent to people across the planet!

When the President and members of Congress from both parties stand before the microphones of the news media and talk about providing illegal aliens with a “Pathway to citizenship” they are, in essence, firing the “starter’s pistol” for the countless millions of aspiring illegal aliens in countries across the globe, encouraging them, in the words of the former host of “The Price is Right” to “Come on down!”

What these alleged “leaders” refuse to understand is that Immigration is not a single issue but a *singular* issue because it profoundly impacts just about every threat and challenge that confronts our nation and our citizens today.

There is no way to win a “War on Terror” and no way to defend our nation against the infiltration of members of extremely violent transnational criminal organizations with borders that offer little more impediment than a speed bump to the illegal entry of aliens into our country, whose true identities, affiliations, backgrounds and intentions are unknown and unknowable. The contents of their backpacks are also unknown and unknowable and there is no record of their entry into the United States.

There is a saying that “Ignorance is bliss!” However, where this human tsunami and their cargo of contraband are concerned, what our government does not know can and has already gotten people killed!

This concern is not just limited to the southern border of the United States but also about our nation’s northern border and America’s 95,000 miles of coastline. This is also about the process by which aliens enter the United States through ports of entry to be found at land border ports, seaports and international airports throughout the United States. This is why I continually attempt to drive home the point that any state that has a seaport or an international airport is a “Border State!”

Incredibly, even as the expectations of privacy and freedom that our Constitution are supposed to provide, in the name of national security, we truly have little in the way of real privacy in this perilous age. Yet the number of countries whose citizens no longer require applying for and securing visas before seeking entry into the United States has soared to 36, removing what could, should and must be seen as an important and effective layer of security- the process by which aliens apply for visas. This is primarily a result of a program known as “DIscover America” that has been foisted on our nation and consequently our citizens, by the “Discover America Partnership” to which the Chamber of Commerce the travel and hospitality industries and laundry list of other businesses that seek to dismantle our nation’s borders at a time when our borders should be of greatest importance!

Check out the website for the Discover America Partnership here:

http://www.smartervisapolicy.org/site/?q=node/5

Someone needs to remind these folks that Al Qaeda and various pernicious transnational gangs have already “discovered” America!

They are motivated by the quest for ever more customers and workers who will work for ever decreasing wages while Americans, in greater numbers than ever, are losing their homes to foreclosure and are finding it ever more difficult to keep their heads above water in the financial catastrophe that has befallen our nation and our citizens.

Meanwhile our political leaders play the game of talking about the need to “create jobs” while they are not willing to stanch the flood of foreign workers, who compete with Americans. I am convinced that nearly every American who is desperate to find work would be able to do so by the end of the week if foreign workers were not able to enter our country and take those jobs! This is not only about the work illegal aliens do, but also about the work that foreign workers who have been granted “temporary” work visas are doing in the high tech industries. The only reason these high tech foreign workers are temporarily present is because no one lives forever! While their visas may state that they are here as nonimmigrants and are supposed to go home after their authorized period of admission has passed, there is virtually no one at ICE policing this program to make certain they do, in fact leave!

The only way to describe these failures of our government to effectively enforce our immigration laws and secure our nation’s borders against illegal entry is the single word, BETRAYAL!

This is a betrayal of the Constitution. This is a betrayal of the compact between our government and our citizens to provide protections and security- think about the military budget- think about how many of our nation’s valiant soldiers in all of the branches of the Armed Services have gone in harm’s way and did not survive or survived with horrific injuries that left them profoundly injured physically or emotionally or both! They consider what the point to the exercise is if our government refuses to make certain that we do everything reasonable to prevent the entry of criminals and enemy combatants and terrorists from entering our country!

This is the betrayal of the “American Dream!”

The American Dream was about providing opportunities to the citizens of our nation who were willing to work hard, acquire a good education- whether it entailed a college degree or the acquisition of a trade or skill and through hard work, grasp a thin slice of the American Dream. That dream has evaporated for far too many of our fellow citizens but yet, all too many of our nation’s “leaders” refuse to address the need to stop permitting aliens to undermine the American worker!

Consider that many economists will tell you that the recession ended in 2009!

How in blazes could anyone make that statement with a straight face when the number of American families living in poverty continues to climb? If the only metric for economists and our leaders is measured by corporate earnings and the price of stocks then the name of the House of Representatives must be changed- changed to a name that honestly reflects what is going on! I suggest that the House of Representatives be henceforth referred to as the “House of Corporate Interests!”

(I know that most of you will question how I can use the word honest and a component of Congress in the same breath!)

It is time for our nation’s leaders, on all levels, to come to terms with the fundamental fact that the purpose of our immigration laws is to protect our nation and our citizens from aliens whose presence has the potential to have a serious adverse impact. Ignoring those laws exposes our nation and our citizens to a variety of serious threats and challenges ranging from national security and criminal justice and public safety to the economy, the environment, healthcare and education!

A country without secure borders can no more stand than can a house without walls!

If our country is to survive and if our children and their children are to get their share of the “American Dream” the citizens of this nation must take their citizenship seriously!

We the People must be the best citizens we can be, citizens who are worthy of the gallantry demonstrated by our valiant men and women in the military, law enforcement and firefighters, who routinely go in harm’s way in defense of this nation and our citizens.

My goal in writing this and other commentaries is to point out our nations many failings before more victims pay the ultimate price for the incompetence and ineptitude of our government.

The first step in problem-solving is to first identify the problems and vulnerabilities and then devise strategies to overcome them.

If you find yourself to be in agreement with this commentary, I ask that you forward it to as many of your friends and family members as possible and encourage them to do the same. We need to create a “Bucket Brigade of Truth!”

The practice of good citizenship does not end in the voting booth, it only begins there.

For far too long our citizens demonstrated apathy which emboldened elected representatives to all but ignore the needs of the average American citizen in a quest for massive campaign funds and the promises of votes to be ostensibly delivered by special interest groups.

It is therefore understandable that the politicians of both parties, are greatly concerned about the demonstrations currently sweeping our nation just as did the creation of the Tea Party. Clearly more and more of our fellow Americans are demonstrating that they are not as dumb as the politicians from both parties had expected us to be!

I am encouraged that more and more of us, We the People, are not willing to simply sit on the sidelines anymore!

I believe our nation’s is greatly benefited by the rich diversity of our people which is why I could never imagine living anywhere except New York City, arguably the most diverse city in our nation if not, in fact, the world. However, my idea of diversity most certainly does not include members of MS-13, the Mexican drug cartels or members of other transnational gangs or members of al-Qaeda!

If our government’s failures to secure our nation’s borders and effectively enforce our immigration laws concerns you or especially if it angers you, I ask you to call your Senators and Congressional “Representative. This is not only your right- it is your obligation!

All I ask is that you make it clear to our politicians that we are not as dumb as they hope we are!

We live in a perilous world and in a perilous era. The survival of our nation and the lives of our citizens hang in the balance.

This is neither a Conservative issue, nor is it a Liberal issue- simply stated, this is most certainly an AMERICAN issue!

You are either part of the solution or you are a part of the problem!

Democracy is not a spectator sport!

Lead, follow or get out of the way!

Why Did the Illegal Alien Run the Border?

Michael Cutler
Michael Cutler, a former Senior INS Investigator, an expert witness in more than a dozen Congressional Hearings is a Fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies and an advisor to the '911 Families for a Secure America.' He writes about the nexus between immigration and national security.